It felt like the flow of air behind me had suddenly shifted.
Focusing on the sounds around me, I heard the rustling of fabric.
‘A thief? An assassin? Henderson can’t have returned from abroad…’
I bit down on my dry lips, unsure of when they had become so parched.
If someone had truly infiltrated, I thought about how to handle the situation.
But my mind was blank slate.
The slip I was wearing clung uncomfortably to my sweaty skin. No more tears fell.
Then I heard footsteps.
Thump thump.
Turning my head stiffly toward the sound, I saw a suspicious figure with a hood covering his face.
I froze. I couldn’t gauge the identity of this suspicious person at all.
Trembling in fear, I thought that if this person was an assassin, I wouldn’t mind dying right there.
Having lost the two people I loved, life had lost its meaning.
Someone stopped in front of my bed, and almost simultaneously, a low voice echoed.
“Are you grieving?”
It was an unexpected remark.
Instead of answering, I scanned the figure.
The person in the robe was tall, with broad shoulders and a deep voice.
I assumed that this person who suddenly appeared was a’man.’
I propped myself up slightly and opened my lips. My lower lip trembled slightly from tension.
“Who are you?”
“I am a sorcerer. With my humble abilities, I am here to help you.”
Sorcerer. The moment I heard that word, rumors from high society came to mind.
“These days, there’s a way to kill someone without laying a hand on them. They say sorcerers can make such things possible.”
My heart began to race.
“How exactly can you help me?”
“First, there is something you need to know, Lady Riley.”
The man spoke in a calm voice. That steady tone somehow helped me calm down as well.
I responded rather smoothly.
“Go on.”
The man delivered shocking news without any warning.
“Your child died at the behest of Lady Helena.”
“…!”
“To be more precise, the sorcerer she hired put a curse on the child that would slowly kill him.”
“How… how do you know that?”
Though I questioned him suspiciously, something in me believed this strange man’s words.
Helena’s resentment toward Eddie came to mind.
I snapped at the man, feeling more suspicious of him.
“The fact that you know this—doesn’t that mean you were involved? Why are you only telling me this now?”
If this man had anything to do with my child’s death, I wouldn’t let him off easily.
“How can you be angry at someone who’s here to help you? I never admitted to any involvement.”
“Don’t lie to me. I can easily find out who you really are. I’m the Emperor’s daughter. My father, the Emperor, will help me.”
The man quietly called my name.
“Lady Riley.”
The air around me grew colder at that moment. I could feel every hair on my body stand on end.
His eyes were hidden under the hood, but I could sense the sharp gaze directed at me from beneath it. It was dangerous and threatening.
In an overpowering voice, he spoke, as if crushing my very being.
“If I were involved in that incident, would I have any reason to reveal myself to you?”
He was right. I bit my lower lip, unable to respond.
“And the Emperor’s help, you say…”
“…”
“Lady Helena is merely the daughter of a count. She’s clever, but could someone like her kill the heir of a duke—let alone the son of a princess—so easily?”
Again, the man was right.
The reason I couldn’t fully believe Helena had killed Eddie was that she was too calculating. It didn’t seem like something she would dare to do unless she had powerful backing.
If it wasn’t Helena’s boldness, but rather the support of a strong ally that gave her the courage…
There were only three people in the Empire who could disregard me: the Imperial Princess and Duchess.
The Crown Prince, my brother, and my parents, the Emperor and Empress.
But my mother and brother loved Eddie like their own child.
The problem was my father.
He never accepted Eddie, who resembled Henderson so closely, as his own blood.
“Take that child and leave.”
Every time I brought Eddie to the palace, my father was quick to send him away. His gaze toward Eddie was always cold.
“Could it be… Father… Are you saying he was involved in this?”
I couldn’t confidently say that my father loved me with all his heart. But at least, we didn’t hate each other.
Could my father have been complicit in the death of my child?
Why? For what reason?
Was his hatred for Henderson so great that he didn’t care if Eddie died…?
How many people were involved in my child’s death, and when did it all start?
Countless questions rushed through my mind in an instant, but no clear answers emerged.
“I cannot give you any answers.”
The sorcerer didn’t provide any clarity either.
“Coward.”
He created doubt but refused to reveal the truth.
In response to my accusation, I heard the sorcerer sigh softly.
“Very well. I will tell you just one more thing.”
The sorcerer pulled something from his robe and tossed it to me.
It was rolled-up parchment.
He offered no further explanation, simply waiting for me to unfold it.
Inside the parchment, a single ominous sentence was written:
If a child with impure blood becomes part of the imperial family, the empire’s foundation, built over 100 years, will be shaken.
“Is this what they believed to justify killing my child?”
Because Henderson was an illegitimate child, and Eddie was born from him?
I was so taken aback that I couldn’t even speak.
But knowing how seriously my father took the oracle, I couldn’t deny the possibility.
“It is an oracle that was given long ago. And as you already know, His Majesty the Emperor is a firm believer in oracles.”
The sorcerer seemed aware of this as well.
“If this oracle is true… then Father was truly involved.”
I unconsciously tightened my grip on the parchment.
“I can help you.”
“How exactly can you help? Can you bring Eddie back to life?”
“The dead cannot be revived.”
I hung my head in despair.
No matter how mystical his abilities were, bringing the dead back to life was impossible.
Even though I knew that, I couldn’t let go of the thread of hope.
Then I heard words that reignited that hope.
“However, I can send you back to the past.”
“……”
“That much I can do.”
“Go back to the past?”
Did he mean I could go back to before Eddie died and save him?
I lifted my head sharply to look at him.
“When can I go back?”
“I cannot give you an exact answer. But I can help you return to the day you desire.”
The day I want to return to…
I hesitated for a moment, but it didn’t take long to decide.
I wanted to return to the day after I conceived Eddie.
The day after the masquerade ball, I met Henderson and spent the night with him, deciding to marry him.
I wanted to give birth to my child, Eddie, again—the one who had died so tragically.
I didn’t want another child.
It had to be the same Eddie.
I wanted to atone for what had happened to him.
Even if someone else had caused his death, that didn’t mean I was free from responsibility.
I should have cared for him with all my heart, even if he resembled Henderson.
And if I went back, there would be no curse to worry about.
“Okay, I’ll go back in time. Send me back to 7 years ago, the day after the masquerade ball at the Graham duchy.”
I even provided the exact date.
“I’ll do my best to send you to the closest possible time to that day.”
“Alright.”
I didn’t feel any hesitation about returning to the past.
Even though I still couldn’t fully trust this man who claimed to be a sorcerer, I wanted to make this request of him.
If I could see Eddie again, I was willing to give up everything I had now.
I wanted to see his bright face again.
To look into his eyes, to talk to him.
There was nothing I desired more.
